Jul 15, 2013

Totem Pole

Yun and I took her mom and grandma to Seattle to see her brother's new baby. The temperatures were in the mid 90s, so the sun and heat were a bit much for the old ladies. Yun's grandma walks with a cane and is a bit unsteady on her feet. There is a little park next to the famous Pike market. I told Yun I was going to do a drawing of the totem pole down by the water. She asked if I could take her grandma, so her and her mom could go around and do some shopping without having to lug grandma. No sweat. They left and as I entered the park, I knew I had to put grandma in the shade or she would melt quickly. The first thing I noticed though, was that the area with shade was very limited. There are tons of tourists around but none of them have shade. You see, the shade is cornered by the drug dealers and homeless people. They have to be there all day. It's their office. Obviously they get there early and take the shade spots. There happened to be a tiny space so I was able to park grandma in between the pot dealers and a big heavy set homeless guy with a large beard. Yun's grandma doesn't speak English, so she was none the wiser about what was happening. I had to leave her there alone because to do my drawing of the totem pole I had to be positioned elsewhere, in the sun of course. Every 10 minutes or so I would look back to see that she was doing OK. She seemed content surrounded by her new friends. I finished in about an hour and went over to her. I showed her what I'd drawn and the homeless guy got very interested. We had a long talk while we waited for Yun and her mom. He told me the whole history of the totem pole. He was a regular encyclopedia. Finally Yun showed up and grandma said goodbye to all her drug dealer pals. Another typical day of vacation.